June Creagh was a young girl growing up in the United Kingdom when her love of music started, but various obstacles prevented her from fulfilling that dream. Now, at 93, she is at long last enjoying life playing and performing as a violinist in Perth.
June is a member of MetSO Chamber, performing at Stirling Community Centres at North Beach, Parkland Villas in Woodlands and recently at Government House ballroom. WA Governor Chris Dawson presented June and several others with a special award as MetSO life members, the photo of the pair together taking pride of place in her lounge room.
Music is her life.
“I always wanted to play as a child but there was no money for that,” June tells Have a Go News at her Ferndale home. “I grew up during the Second World War and some of my friends took music lessons but my mother couldn’t afford it.
“My mother sang beautifully, she had a beautiful voice but, sadly, she died very young at only 40. I had an older sister and brother growing up in Bournemouth but times were tough.”
June moved to WA with her first husband George and two small children in 1966.
“We decided to come to Perth because of the weather and better opportunities for the children.”
A busy life raising the children and caring for her husband during many years of illness meant that June didn’t get the opportunity to follow her dream of playing violin until much later in life.
With the passing of her first husband after a long battle with cancer, June found love again and married second husband Len. A new start in life brought many changes and she finally felt free to pursue a life in music.
“I found a teacher who taught keyboard and piano accordion but it wasn’t what I really wanted. I didn’t know how to get hold of a violin but found the name of someone on the back of a concert program who did violin repair and restoration, and, following that lead, I started learning the violin at 67.”
June started performing with the Hills Symphony and the Fremantle Symphony orchestras. When past WASO concertmaster Ashley Arbuckle and his wife set up at a daytime group, the Encore Strings, June found her main musical home for more than a decade. She was the main organiser and concertmaster for the Encore Strings for almost 15 years.
Following Ashley Arbuckle’s retirement from Encore, June took active steps to ensure its musical future. She turned to friends in the Metropolitan Symphony for possibilities of a shared vision and so MetSO’s daytime Chamber with Ronald Thomas AM as musical director was created.
June has led MetSO Chamber alongside celebrated virtuoso violinist and conductor Ronald for the past two years, allowing her to further hone her performing and playing skills at rehearsals and concerts every Friday.
June has formed a deep friendship with Ronald and really loves his sense of humour and humility.
“I couldn’t have imagined as a young child that one day I would be lunching with the former leader of the London Symphony, cracking jokes while overlooking the beautiful Indian Ocean.”
Her favourite composers?
“I love Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms but not the contemporary ones as much. Playing the violin is my life, I really look forward to each Friday while practising at home on other days.”
Surrounded by a great group of musical friends, June, at 93, is thrilled to be playing and performing. She has realised her dream.
